In The News

Professor Joseph Gyourko’s research from 2003 on land zoning and land use was used in the L.A. Times to explain the housing crisis in San Diego.

“[Gyourko] reasoned that in a competitive market with low barriers to new supply, the price of a new house should be very close to the marginal, physical cost of construction, with older houses costing less than an industry index of construction costs (materials and labor).”

“A deposit says, I’m part of your team, I believe in you Tesla, I believe in you Elon. But it also hurts more when Tesla takes two months to return your money, instead of two weeks. It breaks the social contract, as much as it does any financial contract.”

Professor Mauro Guillen writes for the World Economic Forum on why larger companies may be the most important drivers of innovation going forward.

“Perhaps the single most important factor in the future development of technology will not be the process of innovation itself but how effectively companies align themselves with large transformations in the marketplace so that they can gain scale quickly.”

Faculty Affiliate Robert Inman weighs in on the controversial tax. He defends the projections surrounding the revenue expected by the city despite them being too optimistic. He says that getting within “85-90 percent of their projections is pretty good.”

Wharton Research co-authored by Faculty Affiliate Howard Kunreuther examines the potential for privatizing federal flood insurance. His research found that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) often overcharges policyholders.

Faculty Affiliate Professor Daniel Polsky’s research found that physicians are more likely to take on patients with private health insurance. He also found that their willingness to take on Medicaid patients was directly tied to reimbursement rates.

Professor David Zaring writes in the New York Times about the new process of confidentially filing reports to the SEC prior to an IPO. The SEC has recently begun expanding this ability to more companies, which could create conflicts of interest.

“The possibility that insider trading will occur does not mean the policy is a bad idea. But it does suggest that the commission will have to be vigilant in ensuring that its confidential reviews stay confidential.”

In a New York Times article on the experiences of those who speak out against unethical workplace practices, Faculty Affiliate Mary-Hunter McDonnell discusses the regrets that some whistleblowers feel. She elaborates on the repercussions that many face.

“He said if he could relive it he wouldn’t have done it because it devastated his social life…. He was basically boxed out of the social world he had created for himself as part of his job.”

A Knowledge@Wharton article looks into the problems that emanate from compensations systems. Faculty Affiliate Peter Cappelli, as the Director of the Center for Human Resources at Wharton, illustrates the changing landscape of salaries.

“It is that we want pay to do lots of different things, some of which are in conflict…. So, we generated new systems, especially for executives, that based pay on firm performance and also individual performance. Then we opened up the labor market, with people being hired across companies. The focus shifted to basing pay on opportunities elsewhere.”

Professor Scott Harrington is quoted in a piece on how startups are helping bring life insurance to the almost 40% of Americans who currently lack it. He points out that traditional insurance companies are working to remain competitive against an increasing number of startups in the space.

Professor Peter Cappelli, a faculty affiliate, discusses the chance to the storied tech company’s change in policy with Knowledge@Wharton.

He applauds the company’s nuance, criticizing Yahoo’s effort earlier, “I think the problem here was really this kind of one-size-fits-all thinking. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? The answer is, it depends.”

In an article focusing on recent developments in the blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, faculty affiliate Kevin Werbach shares some of his concerns about the products.

He wants investors to ask themselves a simple question: “Why does this token add value? For something like Brave, which is trying to monetize attention as an alternative to the current Web advertising model, there’s a logical reason why the system uses tokens.”

Professor Ethan Mollick, a faculty affiliate, comments on recent efforts in the recruiting sphere to fairly boost diversity. Unilever is trying out a strategy where entry level applicants will be evaluated based on how they perform on online games.

“Games in recruiting have had ups and downs over the years,” Mollick said, at least in part because of the fact that, “every kind of game discourages some people and encourages others.”

Faculty Affiliate Michael Useem comments on the recent phenomenon, where legacy companies are struggling to compete with their silicon valley counterparts. He and others note that leadership plays an important role in this.

He comments, “who ever thought Ford would be competing with Google? But they are, and Mark Fields wasn’t moving fast enough.”

Senate Republicans recently released their much-anticipated healthcare bill. The law that that bill seeks to replace is the Affordable Care Act, which was devised by Faculty Affiliate Ezekiel Emanual. He comments on some recent, negative statistics surrounding healthcare in the U.S. right now, “The problem is a lot of this uncertainty makes insurance companies nervous. When insurance companies are nervous, they do two things: they exit markets and they raise premiums. That’s exactly what you’re seeing.”

Uber recently announced that they would add a tip function to their ridesharing app, in line with what their competitor, Lyft, has done. They continue to make changes without the leadership of Travis Kalanick.

Faculty Affiliate Professor Peter Cappelli comments on the departed CEO’s affinity for President Trump, “the thing that is important to remember about Uber and Lyft is who their customers are. Almost all their customers and all their money come from urban areas, and those areas are Democratic.”

Faculty Affiliate Kevin Werbach comments for Politico on Uber’s future. The company recently let its CEO, Travis Kalanick, go, and is looking to right the ship.

He makes a point about what would need to happen before an IPO: “the company would want to put its house in order first before going and doing an IPO, which would definitely include a willingness to resolve some of its disputes with localities.”

<h3>The Penn World Table</h3><p> The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 189 countries/territories for some or all of the years 1950-2010.</p><p><a href="https://pwt.sas.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt71/pwt71_form.php" target="_blank">Quick link.</a> </p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>Congressional Budget Office</h3><p><img width="180" height="180" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/180/height/180/380_cbo-logo.rev.1406822035.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image380 lw_align_right" data-max-w="180" data-max-h="180"/>Since its founding in 1974, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process.</p><p> The agency is strictly nonpartisan and conducts objective, impartial analysis, which is evident in each of the dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates that its economists and policy analysts produce each year. CBO does not make policy recommendations, and each report and cost estimate discloses the agency’s assumptions and methodologies. <strong>CBO provides budgetary and economic information in a variety of ways and at various points in the legislative process.</strong> Products include baseline budget projections and economic forecasts, analysis of the President’s budget, cost estimates, analysis of federal mandates, working papers, and more.</p><p> Quick link to Products page: <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/about/our-products" target="_blank">http://www.cbo.gov/about/our-products</a></p><p> Quick link to Topics: <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/topics" target="_blank">http://www.cbo.gov/topics</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>National Center for Education Statistics</h3><p><strong><img width="400" height="80" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/400/height/80/479_nces.rev.1407787656.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image479 lw_align_right" data-max-w="400" data-max-h="80"/>The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.</strong> NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES has an extensive Statistical Standards Program that consults and advises on methodological and statistical aspects involved in the design, collection, and analysis of data collections in the Center. To learn more about the NCES, <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/about/" target="_blank">click here</a>.</p><p> ﻿Quick link to NCES Data Tools: <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?DataToolSectionID=4" target="_blank">http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?DataToolSectionID=4</a></p><p> Quick link to Quick Tables and Figures: <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/quicktables/" target="_blank">http://nces.ed.gov/quicktables/</a></p><p> Quick link to NCES Fast Facts (Note: The primary purpose of the Fast Facts website is to provide users with concise information on a range of educational issues, from early childhood to adult learning.): <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/" target="_blank">http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/#</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>National Bureau of Economic Research (Public Use Data Archive)</h3><p><img width="180" height="43" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/180/height/43/478_nber.rev.1407530465.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image478 lw_align_right" data-max-w="329" data-max-h="79"/>Founded in 1920, the <strong>National Bureau of Economic Research</strong> is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. The NBER is committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.</p><p> Quick Link to <strong>Public Use Data Archive</strong>: <a href="http://www.nber.org/data/" target="_blank">http://www.nber.org/data/</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>Internal Revenue Service: Tax Statistics</h3><p><img width="155" height="200" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/155/height/200/486_irs_logo.rev.1407789424.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image486 lw_align_left" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/4/width/155/height/200/486_irs_logo.rev.1407789424.jpg 2x" data-max-w="463" data-max-h="596"/>Find statistics on business tax, individual tax, charitable and exempt organizations, IRS operations and budget, and income (SOI), as well as statistics by form, products, publications, papers, and other IRS data.</p><p> Quick link to <strong>Tax Statistics, where you will find a wide range of tables, articles, and data</strong> that describe and measure elements of the U.S. tax system: <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Stats-2" target="_blank">http://www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Stats-2</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>